Mobile Demystifiedhttp://www.waterfall.com/blog
The Waterfall BlogMon, 30 Mar 2015 11:14:03 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1Hiring, the Waterfall Wayhttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/hiring-the-waterfall-way/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/hiring-the-waterfall-way/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 11:14:03 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7867 When I first joined the Waterfall team, I was hired on as Office Manager, but based upon the rigorous interview process, I could have been applying for any number of roles. I had two preliminary phone calls, a four hour in-office interview, a follow-up two hour on-site, I built a chair while being [...]]]>
When I first joined the Waterfall team, I was hired on as Office Manager, but based upon the rigorous interview process, I could have been applying for any number of roles. I had two preliminary phone calls, a four hour in-office interview, a follow-up two hour on-site, I built a chair while being interviewed by two people, put together and presented a proposal (within budget) for the company’s annual retreat to a city I had never been, passed a cognitive and personality assessment (used by Fortune 100 companies), and created an intranet Google site that was supposed to convey in three pages who I was as an employee and person. If I’m being honest, as I drove to my final on-site, I had decided that the hoops I had been jumping through were enough; that I didn’t want to work for a company that put their candidates through such a time intensive/ demanding interview process, especially considering the role, and that I wouldn’t be accepting the position even if offered.

I considered myself lucky to be job searching without having a full-time job at the same time, which is something I run across all the time in my current role as Waterfall’s HR Manager. I imagine if I were working 50 hours a week at a company and simultaneously trying to become Waterfall’s next office manager, I wouldn’t have had the time or energy to fulfill the requirements that landed me the role.

In my final interview, as I expressed ambivalence about Waterfall’s interview process and the impression the company had made on me as a result, an executive at the company convinced me that Waterfall was a place I wanted to be; they were poised for growth, positioned to acquire the competition and equipped with a roster of really talented individuals. I’m glad I took this advice, because accepting the position was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I’m not the only person who had to jump through hoops to get a job at Waterfall; in fact, our most recent hire had to do something literally acrobatic: his first three days of employment coincided with our company’s holiday retreat, in beautiful Lake Tahoe. The finale of the retreat was a talent show where everything was being showcased, from karaoke to tap dancing, life lessons to stand-up comedy. Unbeknownst to him, the emcee called him up on stage and told him he needed to come up with a talent on the spot.

I don’t know what I would have done, if that had happened to me. I know that I wouldn’t have run to the kitchen and grabbed a bunch of grapefruits, then proceeded to juggle for 60 seconds while the crowd hooted and hollered, as he did. He definitely didn’t need to perform that night, but the fact that he did spoke volumes about what he was going to bring to our company: confidence, adaptability, calm under pressure, quick thinking and, obviously, the ability to juggle.

What I’ve learned is that the interview process at Waterfall is not really a process at all; it’s a journey. It changes depending upon the role, it varies based upon candidate, but in the end, the goal is always the same: to attain the most holistic view of the candidate in an attempt to fully understand the person who will be joining our team. Culture, something that’s been talked about ad nauseum in the startup/tech world, is something we work hard to foster at Waterfall. There’s no better way to protect and grow culture than by hiring people whose values, attitude and approach align with the company’s; and sometimes it takes an unconventional interview process to get to the core of the candidate– to uncover the culture that lies within each of us.

At Waterfall, we subscribe to the Peter Drucker philosophy that “culture eats strategy for breakfast, technology for lunch…” We know that without culture, strategy suffers; that if your team isn’t bought in, nothing else matters. When evaluating candidates, we think experience performing the exact function of the job is less important than being equipped with the skills necessary to be successful in that role. We recently hired someone who had no previous experience with inside sales, but knew she possessed a few character traits that would bring her success. She did really well, surpassing expectations and proving us right for following our heart/hunch.

We are fortunate to have a diverse culture of varying backgrounds and talents at our company, from calligraphers to ballroom dancers, car enthusiasts to the cat-obsessed. We have enough basketball players to form an all-star starting five, along with Crossfit-types, old-fashioned gym rats, ex-gymnasts and yogis filling out our roster. Beyond athletes, we boast supremely talented musicians (oboe, baroque recorder, guitar and bass), as well as photographers and karaoke superstars. Fantasy sports are taken seriously– this year’s winners boast t-shirts and a trophy, celebrating the first all-female win in Waterfall’s Fantasy Football history. And of course, we have a fierce Diablo 3 clan, with our Head of Product marauding her fair share of loot. We’re introverted, extroverted, creative, obsessive, and always working on getting better (within our walls and beyond).

Waterfall is at a great stage, where processes that have worked are figured out, but nothing is necessarily set in stone. We are constantly working to improve our approach, soliciting feedback from our employees, holding onboarding retrospectives, gathering information and trying to implement better processes for the future. We work hard to maintain culture, but try not to talk about it too much; it’s something that can be felt, not measured, and something that should be known, not memorized from a manifesto.

We’ve never asked another office manager candidate to put furniture together during his/her interview, and I don’t imagine our next inside sales hire will have to juggle. But who knows? We’re working hard to preserve our culture at Waterfall, and if someone has to do a backflip to prove they’re bought in, then so be it.

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/hiring-the-waterfall-way/feed/0Personalization: You Think You Got It down, but You’ve Only Just Startedhttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/personalization-you-think-you-got-it-down-but-youve-only-just-started/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/personalization-you-think-you-got-it-down-but-youve-only-just-started/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 11:00:30 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7861 Marketing software is powerful. Having used Marketo, Hubspot, Mailchimp, and 37Signals for email; SumAll, Buffer, and Hootsuite for social, and the Waterfall Platform for SMS and MMS campaigns, I feel pretty qualified to discuss what you can do with marketing software.There is a general trend when adopting SaaS marketing solutions: You watch [...]]]>

Marketing software is powerful. Having used Marketo, Hubspot, Mailchimp, and 37Signals for email; SumAll, Buffer, and Hootsuite for social, and the Waterfall Platform for SMS and MMS campaigns, I feel pretty qualified to discuss what you can do with marketing software.There is a general trend when adopting SaaS marketing solutions: You watch the explainer video, it tells you how you can personalize messages, target your audience, send compelling message, and get insightful analytics. Then you run to your boss and say “this is what we need.” After hours of implementation and strategizing you have created 1-3 list for a few different audience segments and are inserting [First Name] into a handful of nurturing emails.

Why is it that marketing software provides us with such a powerful tool set for segmentation and personalization, yet it is underutilized by the majority of marketers? Almost 30% of client side marketers do no digital personalization, and 66% use very personalization in a “very basic fashion.” Before we dive too deep into why we marketers are not using the full tool box, let’s talk about what segmentation and personalization are.

Segmentation is when you divide the group of people you market to based on either their attributes (male, female, lives in the Boston, lives in LA, etc) or their actions (clicked an email, bought a shirt, visited pricing page, signed up for newsletter, etc).

Why marketers barely use personalization

After the explainer videos for new marketing software, we are ready to run out and start customer centric marketing. Unfortunately, you are bound to hit some walls. The largest issue for marketers is data. Despite all the talk of big data initiatives and endless customer tracking, nearly 40% of marketers cited not having enough data as a major hurdle to personalization initiatives, followed closely by “inaccurate data” as a challenge (38%). Combine insufficient data claims, with research by Forrester citing 55% of marketers saying “building a comprehensive single view of each customer across all sales and marketing channels” as an extreme or major challenge and there’s a pretty clear conclusion–marketers pile data up, but don’t know how to keep it clean, what to do with it, or where it should all be stored. Marketing data management is a huge topic in itself, but in the words Charles Babbage, one founder of computers, “Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.” So marketers, you might not have all the data you want (or think you need) but take whatever steps you can towards using it to build better customer relationships.

Why customer segmentation is important

An eMarketer survey found that 41% of marketers segment using demographic data, followed by 39% who use geographic data. Less than a third of participants segmented customers by where the customer came from, customer lifetime value, or any purchasing behavior. Only a fraction of the capability of marketing software is being used despite stunning increases in engagement such as a global average of 61% more clicks for a segmented email list.

The goal of segmenting list of customers and prospects is to increase engagement rates and get more insight into your customers. According to Experian Marketing Services, 63% of their companies cited an improvement in cross-selling and upselling due to personalization. Every marketer has theories about who their customers are, and what they will react to. By breaking your customers into groups, you can test how they will react to different product offerings, message copy, and visuals. Customer centric, or “customer obsessed” (new buzz word) marketing is growing increasingly important for digital marketers. With 57% of enterprise companies ranking personalization between a medium and the highest priority for digital marketing, we are sure to see an uptick in more targeted outreach.

Personalization is the next step

Segmenting a list is just one of the low hanging fruit methods to increase your engagement rate and get insights into your different customer personas. The next step is personalization of messaging. Adding in a first name is the thing that most marketers implement. There is so much more you can do, but you must be careful. Personalization tokens are tricky because they can easily border on creepy. For example, I have never been a fan of an email noting my past purchases openly–it just seems invasive. But I do love notifications about my birthday. Anytime a company collects my birthday and then sends me a email or text, I am always grateful and find it a nice gesture.

Personalization is both a huge hurdle and a beneficial cycle. It’s incredibly difficult to start using large sets of disparate and inaccurate customer data. But, every effort to segment customers, and personalize communication, will provide you deeper insights into your customers behavior; insight that’s used to further personalize communication and continually increase engagement. So, overcome the hurdles of personalization and begin the beneficial cycle of customer focused marketing.

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/personalization-you-think-you-got-it-down-but-youve-only-just-started/feed/0Waterfall Continues Strategic Growth With Tetherball Acquisitionhttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/waterfall-continues-strategic-growth-with-tetherball-acquisition/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/waterfall-continues-strategic-growth-with-tetherball-acquisition/#commentsTue, 24 Mar 2015 15:15:34 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7857acquisition of the mobile marketing services division of Archer USA Inc. last November, and today, the acquisition of Tetherball. This further accelerates our rapid growth in key industry segments specifically retail and quick-service restaurants (QSR). Working with brands like Carl’s Jr., CiCi’s Pizza, Dairy [...]]]>It’s been a busy several months at Waterfall – our acquisition of the mobile marketing services division of Archer USA Inc. last November, and today, the acquisition of Tetherball. This further accelerates our rapid growth in key industry segments specifically retail and quick-service restaurants (QSR). Working with brands like Carl’s Jr., CiCi’s Pizza, Dairy Queen, McDonald’s and New Belgium Brewery is exciting as we see help them optimize engagement at each stage of the customer journey, resulting in additional customers, repeat store visits, increased purchase values. Tetherball’s platform facilitate customer response/call-to-action campaigns, mobile membership couponing programs and ongoing client notifications and alerts and combined with our platform functionality, mobile strategy expertise and third-party integration capabilities, our customers will be positioned to more effectively evolve and scale.

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/waterfall-continues-strategic-growth-with-tetherball-acquisition/feed/0Retail in the ring – what retailers can learn from the UFChttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/retail-in-the-ring-what-retailers-can-learn-from-the-ufc/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/retail-in-the-ring-what-retailers-can-learn-from-the-ufc/#commentsMon, 23 Mar 2015 10:37:55 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7833 Everything in retail seems to be dying. For years headlines like “The end of retail stores” and “Brick & mortar is dead” have consistently reminded us that the end of traditional retail has arrived. When you hear about Amazon’s continuous revenue growth and their testing of drones to fly packages to your door, [...]]]>
Everything in retail seems to be dying. For years headlines like “The end of retail stores” and “Brick & mortar is dead” have consistently reminded us that the end of traditional retail has arrived. When you hear about Amazon’s continuous revenue growth and their testing of drones to fly packages to your door, it seems that physical stores are becoming obsolete compared to online retailers. Despite what it looks like though, physical stores vs. virtual stores is not quite the David and Goliath story you may think. Pure online retailers like Gilt Groupe and Fab are having major difficulty sustaining themselves, while Macy’s sales continue to climb. Online-only brands are not only opening up stores, but excelling. Warby Parker achieved the highest revenue per square foot, behind only Apple. The following chart shows Amazon’s decline relative to other retailers:

What is happening to retail brands reminded me of what happened to fighters in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). When UFC first started it was karate master vs. boxer, or jiu-jitsu fighter vs. wrestler. Unique fighting styles were the original draw of the UFC, but the most successful fighters were the ones who adopted Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a fighting style that blends elements from a variety of disciplines. The battle for retail dominance mirrors the evolution of the UFC. Once, physical stores vs. virtual stores ruled the ring. Now the successful will learn to blend the best of both online and physical experiences tuned to their brand’s unique strengths.

Just to ensure we have common terminology, take a look at this chart identifying the four types of retailers:

Barnes & Noble: approximately 33% of stores will close over the next 10 years

Aeropostale: 40-50 stores to close in 2014, for a total of 175 over the next few years

JCPenney: 33 stores to close in 2014

Office Depot: 22 stores to closes in the new combined entity

Sears Holdings: 300 stores closing

Staples: 225 stores closing

There are millions of articles speculating, postulating, and pontificating on the death of the store. Retailers delivered poor in-store experience, inconsistent selection, and inconvenient locations. Many brands pride themselves on great in-store experiences, but the truth is, brands from Nordstrom to Gap, Staples to Radioshack, sometimes have inconsiderate staff who don’t care if I leave happy. Despite being average in height and weight, limited selection is a problem for me. Therefore, it must be an incredibly painful problem for people who fall outside of the “average body type.” Finally, the location of retail stores is often inconveniently located in large shopping malls outside of town.

In summary, traditional retail is dead because I don’t want to drive out to a giant park, filled with giant stores, to wander around giant aisles, looking for clothes that won’t fit. Instead, I can click a few buttons at home and have everything delivered with free shipping. However, despite the convenience, online is not quite the shopping utopia some people predicted it would be.

Why traditional online-only is dying

I sign up for tons of stuff and happily provide my email address to flash deal sites and other services. I love the look of many online stores, but physical buildings, signs, and brick & mortar have a considerable impact on brand reception. I don’t really know what Gilt clothes look like, or Fab, or Amazon. As long as online retailers struggle with unique branding, online retail aggregators will simply be a distribution mechanism for clothes, and not a brand in themselves. For online retail aggregators, low switching cost is a major concern. If an online brand is focused purely on convenience and low cost, it only takes one new company that will sell items to me for less, or get things to me faster, and I will switch.

A major problem for online retailers is that I’m a human. As a human, I like talking to other humans and I like to feel stuff by trying it on. When I go into a dressing room, I bring tons of different sizes and versions of items that I am thinking about so I can quickly discard the ones that don’t work.

Stealing is good

Let’s step away from retail for a bit and look back at the UFC. When the UFC first began, it was billed as a “War of the Worlds,” karate master fights boxing champion, wrestler brawls with jiu-jitsu fighter. Certain fighting styles quickly gained an advantage and it became useful for the boxer to know some jiu-jitsu and the karate fighter to learn some wrestling moves. Fast forward to modern day and the UFC has MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters, that’s it. Each has their area of expertise, but they are all cross-disciplinary combatants. Successful retailers like Macy’s realized it’s not a “War of the Worlds” anymore.

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/young-america-selects-waterfall-as-mobile-messaging-partner/feed/0Invisible Boyfriend – How a team of people can be your significant otherhttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/invisible-boyfriend-how-a-team-of-people-can-be-your-significant-other/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/invisible-boyfriend-how-a-team-of-people-can-be-your-significant-other/#commentsWed, 11 Mar 2015 11:16:22 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7812 My parents believe in dividing up the responsibility of pestering their kids. Throughout my life, my father pestered me to always have a job and my mother pestered me to always have a girlfriend. When I heard of the service Invisible Boyfriend and Invisible Girlfriend, I instantly understood why someone would use it. [...]]]>
My parents believe in dividing up the responsibility of pestering their kids. Throughout my life, my father pestered me to always have a job and my mother pestered me to always have a girlfriend. When I heard of the service Invisible Boyfriend and Invisible Girlfriend, I instantly understood why someone would use it. This viral sensation “gives you real-world validation and social proof that you’re in a relationship – even if you’re not – so you can get back to living life on your own terms.” Invisible Boyfriend is fascinating for a few reasons: it’s a new category of service business, it’s an almost entirely text-based service, and it uses a distributed team with almost no knowledge of you to create your “boyfriend.”

Fake people businesses

There are just not many businesses that involve creating a fake personality to interact with, at least none that I can think of. Charging a mere $25 a month gets you 100 texts, 10 voicemails, and 1 handwritten note from your invisible hubby. New users to the service help write their own love story of how they met their match using a Mad Libs style fill-in-the blank form. The next step is fabricating a general personality and picture to associate with your invisible boyfriend. You can even upload your own selfies to be chosen as someone’s invisible boyfriend. The goal of the service is to “create credible, reasonable stories…that are backed by virtual and real-world social proof.” This goal and the actual execution of it are what makes this service so amazing. To create a credible boyfriend, all you need is a text conversation for proof. Their idea is that texting is today’s basis of a “real” relationship.

It’s all text now

Here at Waterfall, we believe that text messaging is the most personal channel. Clearly Invisible Boyfriend is proof of that sentiment. In one day, over 5,000 people signed up for Invisible Boyfriend, solidifying the fact that texting is truly thought of as a personal means of communication.

So how does it work?

Now this is where brands and companies should take note! The way Invisible Boyfriend works is by far the most amazing part. Your “Invisible Boyfriend” is actually a team of people, a team that knows nothing about you, and never talks with other team members. Each text is routed to someone on either Amazon’s Mechanical Turk Service or Fiverr. They receive your text message, look at the messaging history, and respond for a couple of cents. This system is highly scalable and flexible for ebbs and flows of demands. It allows for private and instantaneous responses by your boyfriend. Most importantly, it creates a highly personalized, single “brand” (Your Invisible Boyfriend) experience using a team of people.

How companies can use this model

Brands have personalities. These personalities are much more vocal with the advent of social media, but I don’t always want to talk to a brand at a crowded party. I don’t want to broadcast on social media for all the world to read that some brand’s pants run deceptively slim and I need to return them because I am too fat. A previous post, discussing Digit as a role model for command-based messaging, highlights the growing trend of creating brand personalities that live in your phone just like your real significant other or pestering mother and father. Using Invisible Boyfriend’s message distribution model along with a brand’s already existing online chat or customer service centers would allow me, the consumer, to directly talk to a company.

The Future of Invisible People

The question is, if I can have an invisible girlfriend, why can’t I have an invisible shopping assistant to help me find deals and new clothes, an invisible apple genius to help troubleshoot, an invisible nutritionist to help me find healthy food, or even an invisible trainer to send me some stretches to help work out that kink in my back. With the ability to maintain a singular brand experience with a distributed scalable team, capabilities to send text, videos, pictures, or documents sans app, and a successful role model, what is stopping brands from creating a “real” relationship with customers?

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/invisible-boyfriend-how-a-team-of-people-can-be-your-significant-other/feed/0How to Select B2B Conferences – Advantages to Being Out of Placehttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/how-to-select-b2b-conferences-advantages-to-being-out-of-place/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/how-to-select-b2b-conferences-advantages-to-being-out-of-place/#commentsMon, 09 Mar 2015 11:00:38 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7805 There are more than thousands of trade shows and conferences that take place each year in the United States. As a technology vendor, selecting the right conferences to attend is a tricky task. Through trial, and a lot of error, we learned what works and what doesn’t. If you’ve ever struggled with picking [...]]]>

There are more than thousands of trade shows and conferences that take place each year in the United States. As a technology vendor, selecting the right conferences to attend is a tricky task. Through trial, and a lot of error, we learned what works and what doesn’t. If you’ve ever struggled with picking conferences or are just getting started with attending shows, I’m here to help you implement a simple strategy for selecting the best mix of conferences. There are more factors than you could imagine when trying to create your ideal conference schedule; the quality of attendees, speakers, venue, location, agenda and opportunity are just a few of the variables you should be considering.

Pinpoint your goal

Since Waterfall is in the mobile tech space, the conferences that popped into my head were obvious: technology, marketing, and mobile. After mulling it over with my team, we stepped back and thought about what we actually want from conferences. What was our goal? Attending a large technology conference where hundreds of vendors are selling similar services seemed like the best opportunity. After all, attendees would already understand our company’s value.

The cost of attending snazzy, eye popping, over-the-top tech shows is extremely pricey. After lackluster success being another tech provider in a room filled with tech providers, we thought, “Why not bring our solution to the conferences that our own customers are attending?” The cost of attending the 50 to 100 exhibitor shows where “mobile CRM” is a foreign term is remarkably more economical. Not only do we save money by attending smaller shows, we also learn about the issues our customers and similar companies are facing directly from them, not from the perspective of tech giants. For example, if you want to know the issues that pizza brands are having, go to the pizza show and see if you can help them with your solution.

Go where you can make the most impact

Deciding which conferences we attend involves balancing the new clients we may pick up, with the time, energy, and money we put into attending. As a forward thinking technology vendor, we want to work with interesting brands that have a desire to move their industry forward. Brands with open arms, ready and eager for fresh new ideas, tactics and techniques. So, we have to ask ourselves, if Waterfallers’ show up at a conference, will that conference include brands that are interested in creating innovative programs with us? We decided to approach our conference schedule with this fresh new take. This is what we came up with for the next quarter:

The key to creating an impactful conference schedule is selecting a wide range of conferences. The list of conferences we selected is eclectic and includes shows focused on the food industry, marketing technology companies, travel / hospitality, and retail. Diversifying your shows is exciting. A successful conference brings together industry leaders, vendors, and clients to network, talk about upcoming trends, and exhibit new products. Every vendor understands who their conference target audience is and how to best manage their time. When planning conferences, we realized that we not only wanted a mix of different industry focuses, but also different sizes of conferences. Take a look at the table below to see some of the costs and benefits of different conferences.

Conference

small

medium

large

xlarge

Goals

learning, marketing, lead generation, client support

learning, marketing, lead generation, client support

learning, marketing, lead generation, client support

learning, marketing, lead generation, client support

Cost of Conference

$50-$100

$100-$700

$700-$2,000

$2,000-$6,000+

Other Costs

travel cost (hotel/car rental/airfare), length of conference

travel cost (hotel/car rental/airfare), length of conference

travel cost (hotel/car rental/airfare), length of conference

travel cost (hotel/car rental/airfare), length of conference

Exhibitors

10-50

50-100

100-500

500-1,000+

Sponsors

10-15

15-50

50-200

200-1,000+

Attendees

0-300

300-500

500-5,000

5,000-10,000+

Benefits

new skills, new business prospects, inspiring speakers

new skills, new business prospects, inspiring speakers

new skills, new business prospects, inspiring speakers

new skills, new business prospects, inspiring speakers

Bigger isn’t always better, smaller conferences accomplish the same goals as larger shows at a fraction of the cost.

It’s difficult to put a dollar value on the benefits of a conference, because the benefits of attending a conference continue to pay off long after the conference is over. So when deciding on your conference schedule, think back on your goal of attending the conference, mix it up, and have fun.

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/how-to-select-b2b-conferences-advantages-to-being-out-of-place/feed/0Busting Through the Silos with Mobile Messaginghttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/busting-through-the-silos-with-mobile-messaging/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/busting-through-the-silos-with-mobile-messaging/#commentsThu, 05 Mar 2015 23:59:09 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7798 Last week, the Mobile Marketing Association, Waterfall’s Matt Silk and Vibes’ Bruce Hershey held an engaging webinar, Busting Through the Silos: Mobile Messaging in A Cross-channel World. The primary focus of the webinar was on the value of mobile messaging and its role in creating a true cross-channel experience. Hundreds of participants [...]]]>
Last week, the Mobile Marketing Association, Waterfall’s Matt Silk and Vibes’ Bruce Hershey held an engaging webinar, Busting Through the Silos: Mobile Messaging in A Cross-channel World.

The primary focus of the webinar was on the value of mobile messaging and its role in creating a true cross-channel experience. Hundreds of participants learned why mobile messaging is a critical channel for increasing customer engagement, purchases and loyalty.

Brands are trying to figure out how to communicate in a cross-channel fashion, but leveraging emerging channels in an effective way still escapes many companies.This webinar is a great starting point to launch a brand down their cross-channel journey,” said Matt Silk, Head of Strategy at Waterfall.

After attending the webinar, marketers and entrepreneurs left with a clear understanding of how to use SMS/MMS in their marketing campaigns, effective strategies for building mobile subscriber lists, and tactics for creating CRM-based marketing. If you missed this webinar, you’re in luck. Please click below for a recording of the webinar and reach out with any questions.

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/busting-through-the-silos-with-mobile-messaging/feed/0Using SMS to drive App Downloadshttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/using-sms-to-drive-app-downloads/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/using-sms-to-drive-app-downloads/#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:07:52 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7776 Square, Bank of America, Groupon, Michaels and other brands are using mobile messaging to drive App downloads. Text calls-to-action on websites and physical signage successfully drive app downloads for two reasons: first, mobile messaging provides a simple method for delivering a link that can be saved for later. Second, using mobile messaging for [...]]]>

Square, Bank of America, Groupon, Michaels and other brands are using mobile messaging to drive App downloads. Text calls-to-action on websites and physical signage successfully drive app downloads for two reasons: first, mobile messaging provides a simple method for delivering a link that can be saved for later. Second, using mobile messaging for app downloads is an effective way to increase conversion and opt users into a mobile database for cross-channel communication.

Link Delivery & Opt-In:

We see mobile messaging as the workhorse of many marketing campaigns, even campaigns that focus on downloading an App. Promoting your company’s apps usually occurs with physical signs, on your website, and through social media. When using mobile messaging on a website you can use a “send to phone” widget, or simply place a call to action on the page, like you would for a physical sign. One of the great things about using a website form field is you can simply have a checkbox that will automatically opt a user into a mobile messaging loyalty program.

Below are a couple of examples of brands using text call-to-actions to facilitate app downloads.

Example – Form field to text link

One of the simplest ways to build a mobile subscriber database, while driving app downloads, is to add a simple form field on your website that triggers a message with a link to download the app. In the example below, Square uses a simple form field to send an app download link.

The Pizza Hut example below does not focus on App downloads but it shows how to get consent to send promotional messages on a web form. Adding in a checkbox for a loyalty program is well worth it because it easily adds people to your mobile subscriber database.

Example – Text call to action on a website:

If you cannot add a widget to your website, simply use a text call-to-action. Checkout the example below with the associated mobile flow. Notice how after delivering the app download links, all you have to do is reply “Y” to be opted into Michaels’ mobile loyalty program.

Text call-to-action on physical signage

The final example shows a text call-to-action on a physical sign. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to promote your app and drive more downloads.

Why you want customers to download an app via messaging

When Apple debuted push notifications in 2009, they quickly spread throughout the app ecosystem and caused my phone to become a hot mess of annoying alerts. Adding geolocation added a whole new level to the over-notification problem. Soon enough I could barely leave my home without a slew of location-specific notifications going off constantly. It’s no surprise push has become less prevalent.

Companies that utilized push notifications learned a harsh lesson about mobile; the second you over message, deliver an irrelevant notification, or message someone at the wrong time, the user will sever the relationship. Like so many other people, I did not navigate to the settings of the App, I just deleted the App and moved on. No more notifications, problem solved. Using mobile messaging to get people to download your app will create a secondary channel to communicate with your customer, because sometimes channels break down.

Push + Text Messaging = Cross-Channel

By utilizing a send-to-phone widget on your website, or using text calls-to-action, you can easily create an effective list of cross-channel customers. This segment of your user base can be engaged with a mix of push notifications for location and app specific notifications, and SMS & MMS messages for account reminders, promotions, and deals. Mobile messaging is an incredibly powerful channel, therefore using text messaging in conjunction with your app strategy is essential to a successful cross-channel campaign.

]]>http://www.waterfall.com/blog/using-sms-to-drive-app-downloads/feed/0Save the date: Waterfall & SXSW Happy Hourhttp://www.waterfall.com/blog/save-the-date-waterfall-sxsw-happy-hour/
http://www.waterfall.com/blog/save-the-date-waterfall-sxsw-happy-hour/#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 20:08:37 +0000http://www.waterfall.com/blog/?p=7766 It’s Thursday night, you’re in Austin, TX for some big music festival and you’re in the mood to meet some interesting people. Good news, we’ve got you covered. Waterfall is kicking off the craziness that is SXSW by sponsoring the Austin Tech Happy Hour. There will be zero presentation decks or speakers [...]]]>
It’s Thursday night, you’re in Austin, TX for some big music festival and you’re in the mood to meet some interesting people.

Good news, we’ve got you covered.

Waterfall is kicking off the craziness that is SXSW by sponsoring the Austin Tech Happy Hour. There will be zero presentation decks or speakers with agendas. There will be creative thinkers, tech geniuses, entrepreneurial spirits, prizes and, of course, flowing beverages. Last year, Austin Tech Happy Hour attracted over 500 people. This year is shaping up to be even bigger.

Not headed to SXSW this year? You’re still in luck. Waterfall is mobile (hah) and on the move. We’ll be visiting quite a few cities over the next few months. Click below to see if we’ll be in your town and make sure to schedule a visit with us.